Waconia Tournament

Tournament morning and I was pumped to go. I was lucky enough to have my good chum Idso in the boat with me as I didn’t draw a non-boater. I was one of the later boats in the draw and as I headed to my first reed spot I could see to other boats heading to the general area. As I approached the spot I could see a fellow club member dropping his t-motor right where I was going to start. So I went to the other end and started working it towards him. Anyway after fishing the entire sweet spot of the reeds I didn’t even get a nudge and neither did the other boat fishing the area. I knew the right fish were in the area so I thought that maybe the fish pulled out of the reeds as to the recent fishing pressure and cool nights. So I made my way towards the inside weed edge fan casting a sexy sunfish redeye shad. As I hit the first weeds I hooked up with a small bass. I also caught one on the very next cast but it was another shaver. Then on a long cast down the weed edge I hooked up with a good one. It was nearly three pounds and my first fish in the box. After casting the red eye many more times it came up fruitless and in that amount of time the water had slicked off and the wind had completely died. After giving it sometime in the area I thought that about this time the dock bite was maybe heating up. We moved to the docks and I caught 2 small keepers on the first two docks after running the next 8 docks fruitless and the wind had picked up I moved back out to the offshore. I thought I would try some deeper edges just to see – after wasting an hour out there I head back to the only area I caught a good one. I tried the reeds again and went way inside the reeds. I flipped a jig into about 18” of water and got a good thump I reared back and boat flipped yet another 3lber. After trying to make more out of the shallow bite than what was there we headed back off shore to the inside weed edge after pitching Texas rigs in the foil I connected with a good one – not quite three pounds. It was at this point when I had realized that maybe I should have never left this section of weeds. I fish it nearly the rest of the day boating a constant amount of fish all over 2lbs but most being shy of 3. At one point the wind picked up and it started to rain it was at this point that the wind switched and I fished the sweet spot in the reeds from a different angle than had up to this point and it paid off. I caught a real good one and to be honest I had no idea how big it was. It was an odd shaped fish and the first half of the fish was inordinately large but then it tapered quickly and was actually quite short. In fact at weigh in the fish was reweighed several times because the weighmaster though for sure it weighed more than the 4.5 it was showing. After I caught the big one there was only half hour left in the tourney and although I caught fish none of them helped. I was one of the later boats to weigh in and ended up with a little over 15 pounds and it was good enough for second place in the tourney. And congrats to Jeff on 1st place – my suspicions were correct – he found a spot similar to mine and just sat on it all day and mined it for all it was worth – which is probably what I should’ve done. I ended up weighing 3 fish on a ½ Texas rigged craw tube and 1 on a jig and 1 on the red eye. I don’t have any regrets and it was great that my home work paid off and it was fun when an on the water adaptation worked. I don’t consider myself much of a fall angler so this was a shot in the arm for my fall fishing confidence.
I will post soon next year’s schedule as we have already picked locations.

Waconia Prefish

Last tourney of the year and I wanted to do well as always but I needed to find some good fish to do it especially since it has taken as much as 20+lbs to win on fall tourney on Waconia. Typically there is usually a good shallow bite this time of year. Although I understand why the fish move shallow in southern impoundments I am not quite sure why it happens up north but I think it is for a few reasons – of which I won’t expound upon now.
So as I headed out for my pre-fishing endeavor I was going to look for shallow fish and for some good green weeds in 7-12 feet of water. I started shallow and found some fish in the shallow reeds almost immediately on the edge with a dt-6 and then on the best looking spot I flipped a jig into the reeds and it never hit the bottom and lifted a 3lb fish to the surface and on the next flip I hooked a 3lber and he wouldn’t let go so he made it into the Champ that made for about 6 bites in 200 yards. So I knew I was going to fish those reeds so I just left to go check docks.
I made it to the second dock and got bit and went to the second dock and got bit on that one too – I didn’t set the hook on either and just moved on. I tried for the next three hours to fish the deep stuff and never had a sniff. I could find lots of beautiful milfoil stuff that excites a guy but nothing not even a sunfish nibble. After that I drove around and looked at some stuff that I thought might play on tournament day and then I put the boat on the trailer.
Prefish Recap: I felt kind of weird only fishing for 5 hours but I didn’t want to burn any fish but I felt good about it what I found so why beat them up anymore than I needed to.

Club tourney full report

Feeling slightly dehydrated and shaky I was ready to go. Having one spot and not the fastest boat in the club I figured I was in trouble. But like KVD says no sense in worrying about the things you cannot control. My Rock star guest in the boat today was Tim Allen. Tim is a good backseater and provides a decent amount of comedy for the day. As we left I had several other boats in front of me but all of them blew past it. As we set down I knew we had it all to ourselves. Tim actually started the day with a fish caught on a ring fry in some current. A decent 2lber and then he caught another one a little smaller. As I pulled into the bay all of the beds were looking empty. Until I got to one near a tree branch. As we got close the first time we were to close to her and she spooked off. I gave her some time to relock on her bed. As we came back through she was on her bed and wouldn’t take anything I threw at her. After several minutes of working her she eventually peeled off her bed and headed for the depths. Knowing exactly where she was now we let her rest from some time. As we came back in on the approach I finally broke down and decided to throw the magic senko at her. Staying a good 30 yards off of her I made a cast past where I knew she was and pulled it into her bedroom. As the coils of my line on the top of the water straightened out I knew this meant good things. I reared back and gave her the steal. After getting her in the net I was quite relieved. Going down the bank a little while more and I casted to what looked like a fishy spot. Only this time I was hanging over a dock. There again my line was running and as I reeled down my rod loaded up. It wasn’t until I gave Tim the rod kept my toes in the boat and leaned out on my belly did the fish finally make it into the net. At this point I know I am on pace but I am out of spawners in this bay. We revisited the bay many times through the day and there was only one other 3lb smallie that was in there and she would have no part of me. At about 11 o’clock Tim opened up the live well and said bad things. We had fish on their side. What I didn’t know is that my livewell had stopped working. My livewell never regained and I eventually would kill those two big smallies. I managed two other measuring largemouth and was actually disappointed I couldn’t scratch a limit, until I came into the docks and realized it was a pretty tough day for most of the guys. Well as it would go down my busted livewell would cost me the win. After the dead fish penalties I was in a tie for first and since the first tie breaker is most fish the win went to Todd. Congrats to him as he figured out something with the smallies as well. Overall there is a few things I could have done better but am pretty pleased with my first tourney in Beyonce the boat.


Special thanks to Mike M. For snapping a photo of the two dead beauties.

2010 ZVBM SCHEDULE

After last months meeting we sealed the deal with next years schedule for our bass club. there are a few events I am excited about and a few I would rather gone somewhere else.
May 15 Pool 5A & 6 - kind of excited about this one - I feel like I have a good amount of confidence in these two pools and having spent all spring on 5a and good portion of the fall on 6 I am gitty and will be ready to go. I will probably fish whatever pool we launch out of. I am not opposed to locking but it is just time you are not fishing and I think either pool has the quality to win it.

June 26 Pool 7 & 8 - probably most excited about this one. As i looked at a map it is a TON of water. Lake onalaska alone is HUGE. Always fun learning new water.

July 19 Chisago - this lake is known for good fish - however I am guessing that it is going to fish similiar to many metro lakes where pitching milfoil is the deal. Not the most exciting fishing but can be very prosperous.

Aug 16 Minnetonka - We fished tonka 2 years ago for our august tourney and it was tough it only took 14 pounds to win it and for tonka that is just small. I will put a little time in on tonka this year cause state tourney is there and I plan on fishing that but I am sure tonka will get more beat up this year than any other year due to that.

Sept 9|10 State - Minnetonka - I plan on fishing my first state tournament this year. Kind of gitty but honeslty there are going to be people everywhere and could be crazy

Sept 25|26 TBD club 2 dayer could be a number of places but i am hopeing that it is on fishhook by park rapids as I spend a decent amount of time in Park Rapids and will prefish it a good amount before this date.

Oct 9 Waconia - Although probably my best couple of days of fishing have come on this lake - i don't think this lake has alot to offer our club as far as teaching goes. it use to really be a big slug fest but as sooooooo many tourneys have been on this lake the average size has gone down probably due to so many summer tourneys and resulting in some high fish mortality rates. I find this lake boring to fish. Drag your favorite plastic around the right spot and you will get bit. It will be fun to fish it in the fall however. And it will be nice that I will get to hunt duck opener next year. The other options for this tourney were lakes out west by faribault - those are the ones I would have loved to fish. Usually not a slugfest but the bites you get are good ones.
Just happy to see washta didnt' make the list again - YIKES
So there is the list for this next year. I have to admit I think spring is right around the corner ( i hope)